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There are lots of reasons that I feel lucky to live in Minnesota. With Election Day this week, one important reason that I am happy to live here is that our elections are safe, easy and secure.

For years now, we have seen people across the country try to make us doubt our elections. There are politicians and special interest groups who want us to believe that our vote will not count, and that we should be scared of each other, so that we don’t bother making our voice heard.

In Minnesota, we know better than to believe that. Most people in Minnesota say they are confident that our elections are accurate. We even lead the country in voter turnout. That’s because we have safeguards in place to make sure every vote is counted, and if there is an issue, it is fixed right away.

We also have 30,000 people who serve as election judges to make sure that everything runs smoothly on Election Day. These people are our neighbors, friends and family. We trust them with things like picking up our kids and shoveling our driveways. We can trust them to follow the law and make sure our vote counts.

Let’s thank our election judges and the other volunteers who take the time out of their day to make sure we can have a say in our leaders.

Daphne Hamborg
Albert Lea